Sunday, November 29, 2009

Last year Tommy posted a meme that I wrote. We now have over three times as many members on the Wall than we did then, so I thought it would be a good time to invite all you new zombie kids to post your meme into the comments.

Here it is, the Zombie Meme:

1. How did you die?

2. How long have you been gone?

3. Death age/true age?

4. What do you miss most about being alive?

5. What, if anything, is cool about being a zombie?

6. How did your family react to you coming back?

7. Most humiliating moment as a zombie?

8. Visible signs of zombiism?

9. Goals/ambition?

10. "If I were alive today, I would..."

Tommy says he has some "big news" about his trip to Omaha, and Colette has finished typing up her interview with the traditionally biotic members of Skeleton Crew, so we should have more news to post soon. Until then, post your memes!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Hi, Tommy here with the latest from the road. Thanks(?) to Margi for filling in.

I wasn’t sure what to expect for my trip to Cleveland. My fiends in Pennsylvania arranged for me to stay with the Thomases (names changed to protect the innocent), who have two zombie sons who I’ll call Greg and Dave. Like me, Greg and Dave both died in a car accident. Unlike me, their injuries are both visible and horrific. Greg can still walk, albeit with a pronounced dragging limp, while Dave is confined to a wheelchair. Greg’s face was so disfigured in the crash that he wears a mask like my friend Melissa, although his is a Spiderman mask and not a white theater mask. Greg doesn’t speak at all; Dave is talkative but isn’t what you would call a fast talker. Both of them are deadly poker players, however. I gathered that Greg and Dave had been popular students at the school prior to their demise; a photograph on the Thomas’s mantel showed them both in the school’s baseball uniforms, smiling for the camera on a sunny day. There was also a prom photo of Greg and a pretty smiling girl nearly a foot shorter than he was. No prom for photo for Dennis; he must have died too soon. Of course he died too soon.I thought I would just be talked to them and whatever network of zombie friends and maybe parents that they had, so I was a little surprised when Mr. Thomas told me that I was invited to go speak at the high school where his boys still were allowed to attend classes. I said sure, I’d be glad to. When I followed the Thomas family down the hall, with Spiderman Greg pushing his brother down the hall, using the chair to balance himself, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of their classmates that said hi or called to the boys by name. Dave always waved with his one good arm, although by the time he was able to raise his hand the person he’d meant to greet was already long gone down the hall.I was thinking it would be something like Undead Studies class, with maybe fifteen students and a teacher or two.I was wrong. There were over a thousand people in the school’s auditorium, students and many of their parents.I don’t get sweaty palms or shortness of breath, and when my speech hitches people assume it is because I’m dead and not because I’m nervous, so overall the talk went pretty well. I spoke about what people were doing to zombies across the country, and I encouraged living people everywhere to try and be more understanding of the difficulties that undead Americans deal with on a daily basis. When I was done speaking, everyone clapped. The clapping wasn’t like I was at a U2 concert or anything, but I’d like to think the applause was more than polite.The principal took the stage, and he shook my hand. “Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Williams?” he said.Lots of people did. The parents, especially. Questions about how they could get involved, questions about politicians I had never heard of that might be sympathetic to our cause, questions about how they might get laws to change. Many of the people that spoke to me didn’t have questions as much as they did ideas, or statements about things that could help. A young girl spoke up and said that a city bus driver threw some “hoods” (her word, which I just loved) off his bus because they were making fun of a zombie and his mother. I told her that was the one thing that beating hearts could for us: speak out.One elderly woman spoke up and said that she’d invited a couple of runaway zombies to stay with her at her house.“I love those kids!” she said. “They’re quiet, respectful, and they take my trash out for me. And I don’t even have to feed them!”That got a big laugh, but she wasn’t done yet.“They’re so much better company than cats!”After the applause died down, she looked around at all of her neighbors, her grip on her purse tightening.“No one should be lonely,” she said, and she sat down, rather hastily.I wasn’t sure if she was talking about “those kids” or herself, and clearly, it didn’t matter either way.Like I said, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting out of my trip to Cleveland, but this sure wasn’t it.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Hello--I'm turning MSCU over to Margi this week for her interview with DeCayce! Hope you enjoy it!

--Phoebe

Hi this is Margi Vachon and I am sitting with DeCayce, the lead singer of Skeleton Crew. If you aren’t familiar with Skeleton Crew—and why would you be, because it isn’t like you can buy their CD in a store or anything—they are a punk band from New Jersey that is unique because they have a zombie lead singer. DeCayce the zombie and this is my interview with him.

Margie: Hi, DeCayceDeCayce: Hi, Margi(Note: DeCayce has a lot of pauses in his speech but I’m not going to try and type those out or anything. It is hard enough trying to type along with this stupid recorder. Sometimes I think the pauses are because he’s a zombie and sometimes I think it is just because he thinks a lot before he says anything)

Margi: Well plus that’s like a cool name because it is like a pun about zombies. You know, like ‘decay’.DeCayce: Oh, you caught that?

Margi: So anyway, you’ve been in Skeleton Crew for how long?DeCayce: Since about a month after I died.

Margi: Seriously?DeCayce: Yes. Before I died the band we were in was called The Polynesian Gods of Southern New Jersey.

Margi: What?DeCayce: We were a surf band.

Margi: You were in a different band with the same guys? Before you died?DeCayce: Yes.

Margi: That’s so cool! How did you die?DeCayce: I leaped to my death from a hotel balcony tower while shouting “I am a golden god.”

Margi: No way. Really?DeCayce: No.

Margi: Come on, how did you die?DeCayce: I prefer not to say.Margi: Fine, be that way. Well, were you always the singer for the band?

DeCayce: Yes. When I was alive I also played guitar, but it is very difficult for me to move my fingers fast enough on the frets now. But I am relearning.

Margi: Wow. That’s kind of sad.DeCayce: Yes. It is.

Margi: I heard that you write a lot of the songs.DeCayce: Yes. I write most of the lyrics. We all help write the music.

Margi: What about I’m Only Dead on the Outside? Did you write that one?DeCayce: Yes

Margi: What about Differently Biotic, Differently Neurotic?DeCayce: Yes. The lyrics.

Margi: Living is Like Dying? Lost the Plot?DeCayce: Yes. And yes.

Margi: Across the Universe ?DeCayce: No.

Margi: Hah! Just kidding. That was Fiona Apple.DeCayce: Actually, it was—

Margi: I know who it is dummy I’m just kidding you. So, do you have any wild stories about being on the road?DeCayce: You mean like when bioist jerks throw bottles at me?

Margi: I was thinking like whether or not you have groupies. Other than Colette.DeCayce: Colette isn't a groupie. She's my soul mate.

Margi: Ew, whatever.DeCayce: I wouldn’t call them groupies, but we have some fans, I guess.

Margi: Do you have more dead ones, you think, or living ones?DeCayce: Hard to say, because sometimes it is hard for differently biotic people to get to the shows. I’m glad we have so many traditionally biotic people cheering us on.

Margi: Lots of girls think you are really hot. Which I think is pretty weird.DeCayce: Yeah. Thanks for that.

About Me

My name is Tommy Williams. I'm a junior at Oakvale High in Oakvale, Connecticut. I'm new to the area. I moved here with my Mom because she likes the school. We've got a cat named Gamera that hates me. We live in a trailer park near Lake Oxoboxo. Mom says it's temporary but I kind of like it.

My main hobby right now is writing, but I played football and baseball at my last school.